Bills Posts

I am just so tired tonight, sorry.

Yes, mixed up, but in a good way. What with Amateur Radio, photography and camera club and a bit video logging, it has been an interesting week.

I’ve now got hold of the user manual for the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro, so that has really got things going. I’m beginning to understand what I am seeing on the screen (note; beginning to). I shall be out again tomorrow (unless it’s chucking it down).

The problem I am now having is that it is very clear that I don’t know enough about anything that I want to talk about on video. So, I need to start studying about the topics that I am interested in. But then there comes the little bit of a dilemma, the videos are not going to be that much fun, I want it to be relaxed and casual, so I am going to have to practice that, and a critical part of that is being relaxed in front of the camera, and that will only come with gaining confidence.

When Misty jumped on the bed at about half past 4 this morning, she was slightly damp, not drenched, so I thought that it might be raining lightly. No, not raining at all, there was quite a thick fog. I got up for my walk.

It was one of the thickest mists I have seen in a very long time. Visibility must have been no more than 50 yards; I couldn’t see the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall, and I couldn’t see from one side (note side, not length) of the pond to the other. I really didn’t feel cold, though, thanks to my nicely padded jacket and flat cap.

As we started shutting up for the night, I noticed that a bit of mist was forming yet again. I’m looking the CCTV monitor now, just a couple of hours later. The screens are almost completely wiped out, it looks like a real blizard, but in reality it isn’t that bad out. If it stays like this I will be going for my walk in the morning.

I am very pleased to tell you that the #Breakfastclub is returning, perhaps not on GB3IW, but it was really nice to have some old familiars on the air for a chat whilst on this morning’s walk.

The day did come to a bit of a crashing halt, I ended up standing myself down for work around lunchtime, to be honest, I had a headache, couldn’t focus on anything, and just wanted to go to sleep so I did. I woke up around 4-ish, feeling considerably refreshed, so hopefully it was just being a bit overactive at the weekend finally catching up with me. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

I felt well enough to go to the Camera Club tonight, I’m glad I did. I think the main thing that I learned was that Japan is as fascinating a country as I have always thought it is. We had a presentation by a chap, Ric Gillams, He’d spent a year in the country and during his time off he had explored and taken a lot of pictures, which he has turned into a presentation. It was fascinating.

Early to bed now. I want to make sure that I wake up fresh in the morning.

With the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro Mobile Phone Gimbal. The important thing with any new piece of tech, is to use it to become familiar with it. Even though I haven’t fully got to grips with my radio, the Yaesu FT-500 which my sister bought me for Christmas I try to learn something new about it every time I use it.

One of my other hobbies received a new gift last Thursday, the gimbal I referred to in my first paragraph. I took it out with me this morning and used it to do some videoing (I find it very difficult to break away from calling it filming). Like the radio, I intend to try and use it as often as I can to become truly familiar with what I can do with it.

One trick I do want to learn is how switch between videoing and still camera, there’s one button you have to click a certain number of times to switch modes. I want that kind of thing to become so automatic that I don’t even have to think about it. That’s why I’ve designated two mornings per week as non-radio days. I’ll be using them as training g days for vlogging.

We had another lovely day today. One of the things that we really like about the Gosport Camera Club is the Sunday walk, on the last sunday of the month.

The Sunday walk usually involves visiting a location for the purpose of taking photos, sometimes it has a nature inclination other times it could be urban (one of next seasons topics is Architecture, so expecting some walks to help that.

The walks always end up at a pub, where we have lunch. Of the walks that we’ve taken since joining the club we have not had a bad experience. The pubs have invariably delivered excellent food, and today’s walk on the Old Southampton Common was the same, and the follow on visit to the Cowherds pub where, to be honest, the meal was exceptional. We would definitely go there again.

We had a day out today, visiting the Postal Museum in London. Included in the trip was a short 15 minutes ride on Mail Rail, the little underground train that used to carry post across the city without interference by the hubbub of city life above. I have to say that it was an extremely enjoyable day.

When we do things like this, I get really enthusiastic about wanting to know more about the history of the postal service, and to make it local to us, concentrate upon the postal service in Hampshire. Now, I do have one post related book in my wish list, and I think it may include material on Hampshire but before i buy it, I’m going to do a little bit more research on it.

I think that amongst other things including an interest in the postal service, something which has in the past and continues today to both intrigue and frustrate us, is something that will only enhance my studies and the output from them. Well, that’s my intention.

The picture didn’t come out the way I intended, apart from the fact that I had to do a fair bit of straightening because I’d taken it at a wierd angle, I’m not sure what effect I was after, possibly dawns light coming through the glass.\

What didnt help was that I was annoyed that the bottle had been left there at all, plus the other litter in the pond, I’ll admit not a huge amount, not much more than a couple of plastic bags and a few other things, but that people have so little respect for things, I guess public spaces that they feel quite comfortable doing this.

I really must apologise for my grumpy tone. Only a few minutes ago, Elayne asked me if I was feeling grumpy and I confessed that I was but couldn’t give her a reason for being so, and that I was trying to get myself out of it.

Lets start tomorrow as a fresh day, with no grumpiness

Yesterday, I told you about the problems I was having with Youtube. This morning I went to the computer expecting to have to do a kind of battle with something, but when I went to play a video, it worked fine. No idea why yesterday happened, I did nothing to fix the issue, so no idea how it got resolved, just pleased and relieved that it is sorted.

We went to Alex & Sian’s tonight for ostensibly to drop off the baby monitor that had been left with us, but we ended up staying and having pizza – we had been heading towards Pizza Hut anyway, and that’s what we had.

Anyhow, I’m telling you that because when we came to leave, I happened to look up and had the most wonderful view of Orion, there were loads of stars out. This reminded me of the fact that I have done no stargazing at all this year.

Around Christmas time I had been looking for the perfect astronomy chair, and I think I may have found it. A reclining chair that collapses down, and most importantly revolves, there are two versions of the chair, which is sold as a hunting chair, one of them the more expensive has a support that comes out the front, designed to hold a rifle. Not interested in that function, but it means that the mount is that robust enough to host a pair of good binoculars, I’m sure it can be adapted to that purpose with relative ease. The cheaper chair is £59, the next one just over £100, not too expensive.

One of the people whose channel I follow has been having personal problems. I put a message on their channel expressing sympathy, and the next thing I know something has gone wrong on my channel – it was almost immediate. Surely, the two can’t be related?

Nonetheless, I’ve pretty much tried everything I can think of, including viewing videos without being signed in to my channel – which work, so it’s is clearly personal to my account. Most frustrating.

I confess that when things like this happen, it drives me nuts and I find it difficult to focus on other things, but I needed to get tonight’s posts done, and now I’m going to get back to try and work out what is going on.